While none would dispute that the Cape Cod Museum of Arts is home to a broadening collection of works by American artists whose lives at some point or another were intertwined with Cape Cod, many are unaware that the museum also has an impressive research library relating to American art.

The library, which is staffed entire ly by volunteers, is the repository of over 3,000 artists’ fi les, thousands of books, videotaped artist interviews, 8 mm fi lms of artists, and scores of letters and other miscellaneous documents related to the museum’s collections.

It is an impressive resource that is known primarily to its members and staff. A recent gift, however, of thirty-three boxes of books from the private library of the American allegorical painter Robert Hale Ives Gammell (1893-1981) might illuminate its importance to an even broader public.

Gammell is an intriguing fi gure in American art. Prior to serving as an intelligence offi cer in World War I, he studied with William Paxton in Boston, traveled to Provincetown, then left for a “grand tour” of Europe, Africa and the near-East. Considered a classical realist, Gammell was an admirer of Veronese and David, and created works of complex allegorical, historical, or literary scenes that were composed of dramatic fi gural groups in elaborate costume and architectural settings.

Unfortunately Gammell’s interest in grand illustrative paintings was not well-received as it was considered “old school” by the modernists whose works were now changing the course of American painting. It was also the period of the Great Depression and the call for large scale commissions and public art was barely audible.Gammell emerged from the Depression a changed man. Gravely concerned over what he saw as the extinction of traditional painting, he began to write and teach, as well as continuing to paint.

A voracious reader, Gammell’s private library eventually went to the Guild of Boston Artists. Recently, it became apparent that they neither had the space nor the resources to catalog nor store the books. Elizabeth Ives Hunter, Executive Director of the Cape Cod Museum of Art, seized on the opportunity and suggested to the Guild that they donate Gammell’s library to the museum.

“It fi ts into our mission because Gammell was painting in Provincetown during the years 1912-1963.” The museum has also hosted two Gammell exhibitions, including an exhibit of his well-known twenty- three panel series based on Francis Thompson’s poem “Hound of Heaven.”

Gammell’s collection of books refl ects his varied interests and reveal, in part, the inspiration for some of his allegorical paintings. The books will all be cataloged, stored, and made available for public use – a feat of no small order. Hunter notes that “The step to keep his books together is a key move to preserve an artist’s legacy, and that’s what museum’s do.”Currently the collec tion is available to the public on an “appointment only” basis, but much of the general public doesn’t even know it exists. “What we have to do is get the word out,” says Hunter. In an effort to increase the public’s accessibility to the library’s hold ings, Hunter is pushing hard to set up a Web site that would place the collection’s database online.

This is just one of the many initiatives Hunter has planned. Concerned that “the high cost of living on the Cape is making it harder and harder for the year round population to support the museum, Hunter entreats “if you don’t have the money to spend, come volunteer!”